Picking Up the Pieces
by Matildalyn
Summary: In the wake of regaining his bending, Tahno finds the tables turned.


_Again._

Just try again.

This is what Tahno kept telling himself. It'll eventually click and just somehow magically comeback and all will be like it was before. However, the water seemed to have different thoughts. He tried over and over again to keep the water going up and down, up and down, but after a moment, the water would just fall back to the ground, splashing onto his feet.

He has never felt so helpless. Well, other than the time that he didn't have any bending at all. But now, after he was able to get it back, his old movements weren't working. Everything had just come so naturally before. And there was absolutely no way he was asking for help._ No way in hell._ So for now, he would just sit in the new gym of the pro-bending stadium and attempt to make his bending come back as it was before.

He was so wrapped up in his frustration that he didn't notice a fellow water bender waltz in.

"Tahno? Is that you?"

He spun around, immediately feeling embarrassed. Ashamed. These feelings he was experiencing were also new. So he tried to cover them in his usual arrogance that he was known for.

"_Uh-vatar_ Korra! Nice to see you again. Come here to practice now that the best pro-bender is back in the game?"

Unfortunately for him, Korra could read people like books. She could see that the usual spark in his eyes was still gone. And she saw his latest attempts at water bending when she had first entered the room. That helped, too.

"Tahno…" she began.

"You know, Korra, even being the_ Uh-vatar_ and all, you'll still have no chance against me. It's cute, really. Seeing you try to beat me."

Call it his previous hour of work and frustration that made his voice falter, his eyes drop. And because of that one little break, he let himself fall apart, because that is what he was. A broken loser. He turned his back on the Avatar, waiting for her to leave to let him wallow in his self-pity. What he didn't expect was a hand lightly, hesitantly touching his shoulder. Shocked once again, he turned around to meet her eyes.

"Korra, listen. I-"

"Shut up, Tahno."

"Excuse you?"

"You heard me. Just shut up for a second and let me do this before I remember what a jerk you were to me and leave, all right?"

"…Fine."

And then her arms were around his neck. She was hugging him. The Avatar. The girl who he had acted like a douche to. Normally, he would have held a smug smile on his face and uttered some lines along the lines of no girl being able to resist him, but these were not normal times. He blamed his next action on that excuse. He hugged her back. He let her comfort him because she seemed to understand when he knew she had no idea what he was going through. But maybe because she relied on her bending just as much as he had on his, she kind of did understand.

The two of them were more similar than either of them would like to admit.

How long they stood there uninterrupted, he didn't know. It felt like an eternity, but when she pulled back, it felt like they were there for mere seconds. He pulled away completely, not wanting to face her, and walked away to sit on the bench. Another surprise came from Avatar Korra when she walked back over to him, took his chin in one of her hands and brought his head up to face her. As she stood bent over with one hand on her knee and the other still on his chin and a smirk on her face, he couldn't help but smile at the irony of her next statement.

"So, how about those private lessons, pretty boy?"

* * *

**A/N:** _So, obviously this was written before Korra got her bending taken away and before we found out how she could restore it. It was pretty soon after the episode where Tahno's bending was gone, though. I got the idea that Korra would find a way to restore bending (which she did) but that the person would have to kinda relearn or get used to their bending before it was fully back again. And this was the product of these thoughts. Also, Korra and Tahno are actually quite alike if you think about it and I just really love Tahno._

_-Matildalyn_


End file.
